The creator economy has bred a new generation of startups — from influencer-marketing companies to new social-media experiences.
These startups have captured the attention and wallets of influential venture capitalists and angel investors over the last several years, giving rise to several unicorn valuations in the space, such as the link-in-bio service Linktree (valued at $1.3 billion in 2022) and the affiliate-marketing platform LTK (valued at $2 billion in late 2021).
Check out 14 VCs who are investing in innovative startups focused on the creator economy and influencers
Even as the economy has weathered changing tides and investments have cooled across industries, some startups in this sector are still raising money.
Several startups announced seven-figure seed rounds in 2023, including the Web3-inspired social network Seam Social’s $2.5 million round in December. Last year also saw several later-stage funding rounds, such as one from Whop, an e-commerce marketplace for digital goods, which announced its $17 million Series A in July. Karat, a financial startup for creators, raised a $70 million Series B in June — though it proves that a big VC round doesn’t ensure stability, as the company later conducted layoffs in October.
Here are 16 creator-economy startups that raised the most money in 2023.
So, how do creator-economy startups land those investments? Often, it starts with a pitch deck.
Lumanu, a creator-focused financial startup, uses a simple pitch deck that’s more of a “conversation guider,” its cofounder and CEO, Tony Tran, told BI.
“My pitch is always why, what, how, and why now?” Tran said. (Read the full pitch deck here.)
Skye, a career-coaching startup, had different pitch decks depending on the type of investor or fund they pitched to.
“I had two different versions, depending on the fund,” Jessica Wolf, Skye’s CEO and one of its cofounders, said. “If I knew a fund was more into pre-seed, all about the founder, I had one deck. But if I knew that they were a numbers person, I would use another one.”
Every startup has a different approach.
Some, such as Throne, even ditch the pitch deck altogether and opt for an email or Notion document.
Read the email template creator-economy startup Throne used to secure its seed investment.
BI talked with founders who’ve pitched their startups to investors about their process. They broke down the pitch decks they used to secure millions of dollars in funding.
Read the pitch decks that helped 31 creator-focused startups fundraise millions of dollars:
Note: Pitch decks are sorted by investment stage and size of round.
Series A
- Restream, a livestreaming alternative to platforms like the Amazon-owned Twitch: $50 million Series A (14 pages)
- Pearpop, a creator-marketing platform: $18 million Series A (18 pages)
- Spoon Radio, a social-audio startup: $17 million Series A (15 pages)
- Kyra, a content studio, talent-management firm, and influencer-marketing platform: $15 million Series A (20 pages)
- Lumanu, a business-solutions platform for creators: $12 million Series A (8 pages)
- Hype, a platform for link-in-bio and other creator-monetization tools: $10 million Series A (13 pages)
- Catch+Release, a startup that helps creators and everyday social-media users license their content to brands: $8.8 million Series A (12 pages)
- Slip.stream, a music startup focused on gamers: $7.5 million Series A (13 pages)
- Brag House, an esports startup: $5 million Series A (24 pages)
Seed
- Scenario, a generative-AI startup to create gaming art and assets: $6 million seed (8 pages)
- Authoritive, an online course-development startup: $5 million seed (11 pages)
- Dharma, a travel startup for creators and brands: $4.7 million pre-Series A (17 pages)
- Glystn, an AI-powered community-management platform: $4 million seed (15 pages)
- Anima, an augmented-reality startup: $3 million (15 pages)
- Grandstand, a sports startup working with athlete creators: $2.75 million
- Seam Social, a new Web3 social-media platform: $2.5 million (10 pages)
- Spark, a digital-art platform from the YouTuber Moriah Elizabeth: $2.5 million seed (9 pages)
- Insense, a startup helping e-commerce brands get low-cost ads: $2.5 million pre-Series A (9 pages)
- Supercast, a podcast subscriptions startup: $2 million seed (20 pages)
- Chartmetric, a music-data and -measurement company: $2 million seed (46 pages)
- Ultimate Playlist, a music-marketing startup: $2 million round (9 pages)
- Magroove, a music-distribution and -discovery platform: $1.6 million seed (21 pages)
- Stagetime, a professional-networking startup for performing artists: $1.5 million seed (13 pages)
- Jubilee Media, a content studio looking to expand beyond YouTube and TikTok: $1.1 million seed-plus (12 pages)
